Autoweek in review: What you might have missed

The new show Autoweek's Vinsetta Garage, will premiere Jan. 3 on Discovery's Velocity Network. The five most-watched car ads of 2011 were announced, with Volkswagen's "The Force" commercial leading the pack.

Lotus lusts after Lutz?

Lotus seem to be pursuing Bob Lutz The Lotus five year plan calls for the track day cars to make way for much more substantial and upmarket cars to become the force at Lotus; a move to become the Aston Martin East Anglia. Probably the first obvious move in this plan was to grab Dany Bahar from Ferrari last year (and Ferrari designer Donato Coco) and now Lotus are casting their net again to snare some big names to drive them forward. Top of the list is almost-octogenarian Bob Lutz who retired from GM – but certainly not from business – last year.

Parking ticket issued every four seconds

UK traffic wardens issued a parking ticket every four seconds last year, dishing out a total of 7.8 million in fines and raking in a whopping £255 million from motorists. The figures, obtained through a series of freedom of information requests by Churchill Insurance, found that Westminster City Council issued the equivalent of more than four Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) per resident in 2013, generating an income of £24 million for 455,000 fines. Parking wardens given ‘illegal’ bonus targets How to appeal a parking ticket Outside London, Cardiff issued the most fines at 57,000 – while North Somerset Council generated the most revenue at £2.25 million.